Scaevola taccada

Tournefortia argentea

Common name: Tree heliotrope

Introduced and naturalized. Small tree up to 5 m or more in height. Leaves simple, alternate and appearing whorled at branch tips. Blade fleshy, 10-20 cm long, densely silky pubescent (covered with soft hair) on both surfaces. Flowers sessile (lacking stalk) in stiff, widely branching. Calyx deeply divided about halfway into 5 elliptical lobes. Fruits white to green, globose, 3-6 mm long, ultimately dividing into four nutlets. Native to tropical Asia, Madagascar, tropical Australia, Tuamotus, and most of the low and high islands of Micronesia and Polynesia. A modern introduction to Hawai'i. Tournefortia has become naturalized and relatively common in coastal areas on Kure, Midway, and Pearl and Hermes Atolls; Lisianski and Laysan Islands; French Frigate Shoals; and all of the main Hawaiian islands, except Kaho'olawe.

It grows in littoral forest on rocky and sandy coasts, and is particularly common in sandy open habitats of atolls, often being the tree species closest to the ocean. On Midway and other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Tournefornia serves as nesting habitat for our shrub-nesting seabirds. On Midway, this plant flowers and seeds from May through November.

Since the tree is small, it is not very good for timber, but the wood is sometimes used for making gongs, canoe bailers, tool handles and carved handicrafts, and parts of the tree are reported to be used in native medicines in the Society Islands and Tokelau. The leaves were once used in the preparation of a red dye in Tahiti.

Ipomea pes-caprae

Trailing glabrous vine with purple stems, often rooting at the nodes, fleshy to nearly woody from a thickened taproot, up to 5 m or more long.

Native to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. In Hawai'i, common on open or grassy, often disturbed areas, from mesic coastal sites to mesic and wet forest. Found on Midway Atoll and all of the main Hawaiian islands except Kaho'olawe. On Midway, this plant can be found in disturbed and wet areas. Plants are growing, and seeding from March through November.

Native to the Pacific equatorial region; in Hawai'i occurring in coastal sites on coral sand, gravel and saline flats, sometimes as a pioneer species. On Kure, Midway (Eastern and Spit islands), and Pearl and Hermes atolls, French Frigate Shoals, and formerly at Barber's Point, O‘ahu. On Midway, plants observed with inflorescences from May through November.

What We Do

During the breeding season, adult tropicbirds (see one pictured above over Midway lagoon) fly in a group around one another, swinging their tail streamers from side to side for several minutes to attract the female bird. Their courtship displays are complex and consist of flying backwards, vertically, and in large, vertical circles.